Online Recipe Storage Ideas

I have a long list of recipes I'd like to try. Years ago, I'd clip recipes that sounded good from magazines or newspapers, and I found a wonderful and organized way to keep track of all of them. Nowadays, I find most of my recipes online.

Many of them I find through Menu Plan Monday. Some are recipes I find myself because something sounds good, or I need to use up a particular item. Lots of times, a friend will send me something they love or they think sounds like something I'd enjoy making, or goes well with our attempts at eating a whole food diet.

They are all online.

So I searched and searched for something free I could use to categorize and store them. I found nothing. Many of the recipe sites allow you to save to your own recipe box. But then you have to visit each site to find your recipes, and you can't store recipes you find on blogs or other sites in the same place.

What I finally ended up doing is starting a private blog where I have a specific place for each category and hyperlink the name of the recipe for where I find it. I started doing this is 2008, so my list is quite long now. It has come in very handy during many of my meal planning sessions. And it has give my one place to store all of those items I just don't want to forget to try.

Do any of you have any other ways you store online recipes you'd like to try?

Breakfast Cookies

I was talking to my sister the other day and she brought up my Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies that have zucchini in them. I asked her if she'd tried the other ones on my blog and she didn't remember even seeing them. So I came on to check and, sure enough, I had them posted on my private blog, where I keep notes about recipes and such. I did not realize I had never posted them on here.

These are found on a great blog I try to read regularly. Laura has the same, or close to the same, ideas about food and nutrition as we do at our house. We have been making these fabulous cookies at least a couple times a month for over a year and a half. I am sorry I have not shared them with you!


Giant Breakfast Cookies

Tiara's Helpful Hints and Amendments:

* If you do not have buttermilk, mix 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. I have also successfully used plain yogurt to replace buttermilk in this and other recipes.

* This recipe is somewhat hard to soak ahead of time because much of the moisture is found in the eggs, which I do not like to leave out all night. It can be done though. Laura, in fact, gives directions at the end of the recipe for doing this.

* In our family, we like to add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 2 full teaspoons cinnamon.

* I mix in more than a cup of extras at the end. I usually add a cup or more of fresh fruit such as diced apples or peaches, or zucchini, as well as dried cranberries (most of my family isn't wild about raisins) or coconut. Nuts are also a nice addition.